Book Review: Star Wars: Tarkin

Book: Star Wars: Tarkin by James Luceno

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Rating: 2 stars

Review:

This had a very interesting start with the author giving the reader background information about Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin (some believable and some not) and how he transformed into a person that is highly regarded by the Emperor. The story also gave the reader a view into the mind of the Emperor and how he works as well as how Darth Vader commands.

Too bad the story didn't stick with Tarkin instead of turning into an annoying and far fetched cat and mouse game with Tarkin and Vader trying to track down a small crew of hijackers who had stolen Tarkin's prized cruiser the Carrion Spike. The thieves were using the ship to attack various Imperial outposts. It's hard to believe that both Vader and Tarkin were both outsmarted and were constantly one step behind the crew. Vader and Tarkin are supposed to be the best of the worst and this story made a fool out some of the most feared villains around.

As I said before the beginning was interesting and possibly well on it's way to giving the reader a great story about a very bad and evil group of men (the Emperor, Tarkin and Darth Vader) but as the story went on it became really, really boring. I find it hard to believe that at one point in the story the Emperor would care whether Tarkin and Vader would get along. As long as they are doing everything he says I can't possibly think he would care if they worked well with each other or not.

Something I did like was that the story included information from Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. But what I didn't like was that the story also focused on the crew who stole the ship, I didn't really care about their point of view because it didn't tell me anything and all it did was take away from the story.

This was a very lackluster book that failed to show why Tarkin is one of most feared men in the Empire. The writing suffered from a lot of telling the reader stuff instead of showing them. I found the characters out of character and with many of the characters voices all sounding the same. Nothing really set them apart.

As a Star Wars fan I failed to see what the purpose of this book was, because it certainly wasn't an exciting fantasy adventure that gave the reader a look at the Empire through the eyes of Tarkin. In the end, Tarkin was not a good read.